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Byron Shire
October 22, 2026

Mandy Nolan

Mandy Nolan has performed as a standup comedian for more than 20 years. During that time, she has worked alongside celebrities such as Whoopi Goldberg, Ertha Kit, and Bob Downe. Amid a full schedule of live acts, television and radio appearances, a weekly press column in The Echo and a comedy course (did we mention she also has five children?), Mandy also finds time as a MC, presenter and conference facilitator. See Mandy’s Soapbox every week here in Echonetdaily.
http://www.mandynolan.com.au

Showing content from:Mandy Nolan

Byron Echo

Mandy Nolan’s Soapbox: Bring Out Your Dead

Mandy Nolan - 0
Having a dead father made me different to other kids. I was six when he died, and in a small town even I knew that for the week of his death, our family was all anyone was talking about. The 30-year-old, wild and misunderstood Robert, who drove his powder blue Valiant, drunk, head on into an oncoming vehicle, killing the grandfather of someone who I was to later meet in high school. It was a collision that changed my life forever.
Read more
Byron Echo

Mandy Nolan’s Soapbox: Big Problem with Small Print

Mandy Nolan - 0
Who ever thought putting menus in an 8-point font was a good idea? As a woman with reading glasses, who often forgets said glasses, I take it personally. It says: go away old lady. It feels like a restaurant or cafe for people with perfect vision. There may be a disabled toilet but I’m just not feeling the inclusion.
Read more
Byron Echo

Why We Still March to Reclaim the Night

Mandy Nolan - 0
Imagine being raped or killed and being blamed. That’s how it’s been for women in a patriarchy that instead of holding the perpetrator to account, asks ‘What was she wearing?’, ‘Why was she walking on that street at that time of night?’, ‘Was she a sex worker?’ These are the wrong questions.
Read more
Byron Echo

Mandy Nolan’s Soapbox: The Joy of Boredom

Mandy Nolan - 0
Are we at risk of losing our ability to experience boredom? Will boredom soon be extinct?
Read more
Byron Echo

Mandy Nolan’s Soapbox: Lets Talk About Dementia

Mandy Nolan - 0
This week is Dementia Action Week. Some of its purposes are to raise awareness, reduce stigma and build understanding. We don’t talk about dementia because it scares us.
Read more
Byron Echo

Mandy Nolan’s Soapbox: How do you view the world without taking your view from the world?

Mandy Nolan - 0
Sometimes people will say something, and the words just land inside me. Like a bird flying home to their nest. Like an ant finding the cool underside of a rock. Like a salmon swimming upstream to the place where they were born.
Read more
Byron Echo

Mandy Nolan’s Soapbox: Warning: Choking Hazard

Mandy Nolan - 0
There is no safe way of choking someone.
Read more
Byron Echo

Mandy Nolan’s Soapbox: Turn and Face the Change

Mandy Nolan - 0
‘Changes’ – It’s my favourite Bowie song. How do we change? And I don’t just mean personally. I mean as a large community of humans. As a species? Because we have to change. Now.
Read more
Byron Echo

Mandy Nolan’s Soapbox: I Am Home

Mandy Nolan - 0
We are in a housing crisis. But does that adequately describe where we are right now? The last census told us there are lots of houses. A million empty ones in fact. So if we’re building enough houses, is it in fact less a housing crisis, and more a homing crisis?
Read more
Byron Echo

Mandy Nolan’s Soapbox: Hold a person to your ear and hear the sound of what they see

Mandy Nolan - 0
People are better than podcasts. And you don’t have to download them. It’s ironic that we have developed a love for the recorded dialogues of people – yet avoid the real thing.
Read more
Byron Echo

Mandy Nolan’s Soapbox: Say NO to AI

Mandy Nolan - 0
Stop using AI. It’s stealing your ideas. It’s stealing your ability. It’s stealing your job. It’s stealing your soul. It’s stealing your brilliance. It’s stealing you.
Read more
Byron Echo

Mandy Nolan’s Soapbox: Birdsong – Nature’s Call to Action

Mandy Nolan - 0
I’ve only just started really listening to the songs of birds. Since the alarming news that the H5 bird flu virus – or HPAI, high pathogenicity avian influenza – was confirmed in Australia, I contemplated the reality that our wildlife could be devastated in the same way as it has been in other continents. I imagined whole populations of our birds decimated. Like our black swan.
Read more
Byron Echo

Mandy Nolan’s Soapbox: Take a Bow

Mandy Nolan - 0
When I picked up the car it had a big red bow. I’d seen this on Facebook. Happy people standing next to a car with a bow on it, and I‘d thought ‘what a wanker’. Now I was that wanker.
Read more
Byron Echo

Mandy Nolan’s Soapbox: How the Phone Stole Us

Mandy Nolan - 0
When I was a child we didn’t have a phone. We couldn’t afford it. If we needed to make a call we went next door to the Clancys’ house and sat at their kitchen bench, lifted the receiver, turned the Bakelite handle three times, and waited for the operator.
Read more
Byron Echo

Mandy Nolan’s Soapbox: Why I Love Being Dry

Mandy Nolan - 0
On 13 July I am four years sober. I am one of a growing number of people who decided to quit alcohol. It’s one of the best decisions of my life. My only regret is I didn’t do it sooner.
Read more
Byron Echo

Mandy Nolan’s Soapbox: When No Means MoNo

Mandy Nolan - 0
Pauline wants monoculture. No one really knows what she means. And we know that Pauline definitely doesn’t know what it means, she just knows it will create disturbance. So I’ve done a bit of a deep dive on what the mono might look like.
Read more
Byron Echo

Mandy Nolan’s Soapbox: Vagina-Maxxing

Mandy Nolan - 0
It’s a thing. It popped into my newsfeed as a story. I had to click. I mean, what new vagina fashion has come into play. Maxxing? Is this some new big vagina trend? Are our vaginas now not ‘big’ enough? Are we trying to create a spare room in our womb?
Read more
Byron Echo

Mandy Nolan’s Soapbox: Plastic Is Forever

Mandy Nolan - 0
Our family has been trying to give up plastic. And I’m not just talking single-use straws or takeaway cups or bottled water. Like most people we did that years ago. I’m talking about all the other plastic that we ingest either directly or through chemical leaching. In the period of time since I was a child, to a child born now, the fossil fuel industry has become implicated in nearly every part of our daily routine.
Read more
Byron Echo

Mandy Nolan’s Soapbox: Let’s Disappear the Outrage Farmer

Mandy Nolan - 0
There’s super-offensive content making its way around the internet by someone who is NOT Indigenous and is NOT a comedian. I will not say her name. I will not identify her nor will I describe the content. If you think you know what I am talking about: good. And if you don’t: good. Let’s keep it that way.
Read more
Byron Echo

Mandy Nolan’s Soapbox: Saying Goodbye to a Very Handsome Man

Mandy Nolan - 0
Last week an old friend of mine died. His name was Gary Cook. We met here in Byron Bay, when I was 23. He would have been in his early 30s. He was handsome. And funny. And weird. And self-involved. He used to come to Ringos, where I worked as a waitress. He’d sing to himself, bludge cigarettes, and shine up the serviette holder. He loved looking at himself. He’d laugh and say, ‘God, I’m a handsome man,’ and then he’d laugh this really infectious laugh
Read more
Byron Echo

Mandy Nolan’s Soapbox: Old Men Dancing

Mandy Nolan - 0
A few months ago I shared a 30-second video on my socials of Old Men Dancing. They’re a small ensemble of, you guessed it ‘old men’ who meet on Mondays at the Drill Hall under the choreography and inspiration of dance teacher Kimberley McIntyre. I had invited them to open my Byron Live show with their interpretation of ‘Under Pressure’. It felt right. In a failing patriarchy, men are under pressure. So why not share the gift of interpretative dance?
Read more
Byron Echo

Mandy Nolan’s Soapbox: Bring Out Your Dead

Mandy Nolan - 0
Having a dead father made me different to other kids. I was six when he died, and in a small town even I knew that for the week of his death, our family was all anyone was talking about. The 30-year-old, wild and misunderstood Robert, who drove his powder blue Valiant, drunk, head on into an oncoming vehicle, killing the grandfather of someone who I was to later meet in high school. It was a collision that changed my life forever.
Read more
Byron Echo

Mandy Nolan’s Soapbox: Big Problem with Small Print

Mandy Nolan - 0
Who ever thought putting menus in an 8-point font was a good idea? As a woman with reading glasses, who often forgets said glasses, I take it personally. It says: go away old lady. It feels like a restaurant or cafe for people with perfect vision. There may be a disabled toilet but I’m just not feeling the inclusion.
Read more
Byron Echo

Why We Still March to Reclaim the Night

Mandy Nolan - 0
Imagine being raped or killed and being blamed. That’s how it’s been for women in a patriarchy that instead of holding the perpetrator to account, asks ‘What was she wearing?’, ‘Why was she walking on that street at that time of night?’, ‘Was she a sex worker?’ These are the wrong questions.
Read more
Byron Echo

Mandy Nolan’s Soapbox: The Joy of Boredom

Mandy Nolan - 0
Are we at risk of losing our ability to experience boredom? Will boredom soon be extinct?
Read more
Byron Echo

Mandy Nolan’s Soapbox: Lets Talk About Dementia

Mandy Nolan - 0
This week is Dementia Action Week. Some of its purposes are to raise awareness, reduce stigma and build understanding. We don’t talk about dementia because it scares us.
Read more
Byron Echo

Mandy Nolan’s Soapbox: How do you view the world without taking your view from the world?

Mandy Nolan - 0
Sometimes people will say something, and the words just land inside me. Like a bird flying home to their nest. Like an ant finding the cool underside of a rock. Like a salmon swimming upstream to the place where they were born.
Read more
Byron Echo

Mandy Nolan’s Soapbox: Warning: Choking Hazard

Mandy Nolan - 0
There is no safe way of choking someone.
Read more
Byron Echo

Mandy Nolan’s Soapbox: Turn and Face the Change

Mandy Nolan - 0
‘Changes’ – It’s my favourite Bowie song. How do we change? And I don’t just mean personally. I mean as a large community of humans. As a species? Because we have to change. Now.
Read more
Byron Echo

Mandy Nolan’s Soapbox: I Am Home

Mandy Nolan - 0
We are in a housing crisis. But does that adequately describe where we are right now? The last census told us there are lots of houses. A million empty ones in fact. So if we’re building enough houses, is it in fact less a housing crisis, and more a homing crisis?
Read more
Byron Echo

Mandy Nolan’s Soapbox: Hold a person to your ear and hear the sound of what they see

Mandy Nolan - 0
People are better than podcasts. And you don’t have to download them. It’s ironic that we have developed a love for the recorded dialogues of people – yet avoid the real thing.
Read more
Byron Echo

Mandy Nolan’s Soapbox: Say NO to AI

Mandy Nolan - 0
Stop using AI. It’s stealing your ideas. It’s stealing your ability. It’s stealing your job. It’s stealing your soul. It’s stealing your brilliance. It’s stealing you.
Read more
Byron Echo

Mandy Nolan’s Soapbox: Birdsong – Nature’s Call to Action

Mandy Nolan - 0
I’ve only just started really listening to the songs of birds. Since the alarming news that the H5 bird flu virus – or HPAI, high pathogenicity avian influenza – was confirmed in Australia, I contemplated the reality that our wildlife could be devastated in the same way as it has been in other continents. I imagined whole populations of our birds decimated. Like our black swan.
Read more
Byron Echo

Mandy Nolan’s Soapbox: Take a Bow

Mandy Nolan - 0
When I picked up the car it had a big red bow. I’d seen this on Facebook. Happy people standing next to a car with a bow on it, and I‘d thought ‘what a wanker’. Now I was that wanker.
Read more
Byron Echo

Mandy Nolan’s Soapbox: How the Phone Stole Us

Mandy Nolan - 0
When I was a child we didn’t have a phone. We couldn’t afford it. If we needed to make a call we went next door to the Clancys’ house and sat at their kitchen bench, lifted the receiver, turned the Bakelite handle three times, and waited for the operator.
Read more
Byron Echo

Mandy Nolan’s Soapbox: Why I Love Being Dry

Mandy Nolan - 0
On 13 July I am four years sober. I am one of a growing number of people who decided to quit alcohol. It’s one of the best decisions of my life. My only regret is I didn’t do it sooner.
Read more
Byron Echo

Mandy Nolan’s Soapbox: When No Means MoNo

Mandy Nolan - 0
Pauline wants monoculture. No one really knows what she means. And we know that Pauline definitely doesn’t know what it means, she just knows it will create disturbance. So I’ve done a bit of a deep dive on what the mono might look like.
Read more
Byron Echo

Mandy Nolan’s Soapbox: Vagina-Maxxing

Mandy Nolan - 0
It’s a thing. It popped into my newsfeed as a story. I had to click. I mean, what new vagina fashion has come into play. Maxxing? Is this some new big vagina trend? Are our vaginas now not ‘big’ enough? Are we trying to create a spare room in our womb?
Read more
Byron Echo

Mandy Nolan’s Soapbox: Plastic Is Forever

Mandy Nolan - 0
Our family has been trying to give up plastic. And I’m not just talking single-use straws or takeaway cups or bottled water. Like most people we did that years ago. I’m talking about all the other plastic that we ingest either directly or through chemical leaching. In the period of time since I was a child, to a child born now, the fossil fuel industry has become implicated in nearly every part of our daily routine.
Read more
Byron Echo

Mandy Nolan’s Soapbox: Let’s Disappear the Outrage Farmer

Mandy Nolan - 0
There’s super-offensive content making its way around the internet by someone who is NOT Indigenous and is NOT a comedian. I will not say her name. I will not identify her nor will I describe the content. If you think you know what I am talking about: good. And if you don’t: good. Let’s keep it that way.
Read more
Byron Echo

Mandy Nolan’s Soapbox: Saying Goodbye to a Very Handsome Man

Mandy Nolan - 0
Last week an old friend of mine died. His name was Gary Cook. We met here in Byron Bay, when I was 23. He would have been in his early 30s. He was handsome. And funny. And weird. And self-involved. He used to come to Ringos, where I worked as a waitress. He’d sing to himself, bludge cigarettes, and shine up the serviette holder. He loved looking at himself. He’d laugh and say, ‘God, I’m a handsome man,’ and then he’d laugh this really infectious laugh
Read more
Byron Echo

Mandy Nolan’s Soapbox: Old Men Dancing

Mandy Nolan - 0
A few months ago I shared a 30-second video on my socials of Old Men Dancing. They’re a small ensemble of, you guessed it ‘old men’ who meet on Mondays at the Drill Hall under the choreography and inspiration of dance teacher Kimberley McIntyre. I had invited them to open my Byron Live show with their interpretation of ‘Under Pressure’. It felt right. In a failing patriarchy, men are under pressure. So why not share the gift of interpretative dance?
Read more
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